Term Paper on "Dee in the Story"

Term Paper 4 pages (1537 words) Sources: 7 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Dee in the story, and what she needs to learn to become a better person. In this short story, Dee, the sophisticated sister, is whiter than she is black, even though she changes her name to the African Wangero. Even with her African name, her clothing, her speech, and even her Muslim inclinations are not her real racial heritage, and since she really does not comprehend her true African heritage, she is nothing but a fake.

Alice Walker's novel is the story of a vibrant and often volatile relationship between a mother and her two daughters, but it is also a tale of understanding and appreciation. The mother is the narrator, and she tells the story of her two very different daughters who often seem at odds with one another. Literary critic David White notes, "In 'Everyday Use,' Alice Walker tells a story of a mother's conflicted relationship with her two daughters. On its surface, 'Everyday Use' tells how a mother gradually rejects the superficial values of her older, successful daughter in favor of the practical values of her younger, less fortunate daughter" (White). The mother has always seemed to favor Dee, while Maggie, the "flawed" daughter, is always in the background. Dee represents the contemporary daughter who has left the rural South and created a life for herself in the white world, while Maggie represents the daughter that is content with her lot in life and with the family, she loves. In reality, Dee represents the black militants of the time, who professed to love their black heritage, but really were just fitting into the white man's world.

Walker depicts Dee as self-centered and arrogant. She is the one who gets the nice clothes to wear, while Maggie simply does not care about clothing and style. Walker writes, "At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was" (Walker pg #). In addition, Dee obtains the education and the tools she needs to break away from her rural roots. Dee is ashamed of her family and where she comes from, and acts as if it is a miracle for her to bother to visit at all. When she does visit, it is simply to show off and to take things, like the quilts and the butter churn; she can use to impress the people back in the city. Dee has become a snob and has thrown away the roots of her family and her rich culture. She cannot see it, but she acts whiter than she does black. If anyone pointed her behavior out, she would certainly disagree, since she is so adamant she is totally in touch with her black heritage. Walker points this out when she writes about Dee's sudden interest in the quilts, "I didn't want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told they were old-fashioned, out of style" (Walker pg#). Because of this, she seems fake and insincere, and certainly does not value the love of her family and the vibrancy of her family's traditions and heritage.

At the same time, Walker depicts Maggie as unpretentious and uncomplicated. However, when it comes right down to it, Maggie is the wiser of the two daughters. She knows the integrity of her life and her family, and she struggles to maintain her heritage through long-held customs like quilting. She may seem ignorant and backward to her sister, but she is the true heroine of the story, because she is the one who will be happy in the end, because she truly does not need very much to be happy. Her mother finally becomes aware of this and recognizes how significant Maggie really is to the family. Maggie will keep the important traditions alive, while Dee and all her paraphernalia will let them die and then not appreciate what she has given up. The two sisters are very different, but they have to be to get the full theme of the story across to the reader.

It is a fascinating aspect of the story that Maggie is afraid of Dee. Walker writes, "She looked at her sister with something like fear but she wasn't made at her. This was Maggie's portion. This was the way she knew God to work" (Walker pg #). Maggie has always played a secondary role to Dee, and so she senses she will never be anything else but second best. The significant aspect of the story takes place when her mother (the narrator) finally realizes how she has been putting Dee first her whole life, and realizes the harm she has done to Maggie's development as a result. She comes to understand Maggie may be "uncomplicated" but she is far more understanding and aware of her roots and the importance of family than Dee can ever possibly be. When the mother gives Maggie the quilts, she also gives her approval and love, and that is a starting point for Maggie to create a new, fulfilling life for herself. Walker writes, "I did something I never done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands and dumped them into Maggie's lap" (Walker pg #). She has given love an approval to Maggie, and this is the turning point of the story and the moment that validates Maggie's existence.

Maggie's familiarity with quilting is also in direct contrast with Dee's attention to the quilts. Dee simply wants to show them off to her friends and put them on display, while Maggie knows how to produce her own works of art. Thus, Maggie can carry on the family legacy and add her own talent to it, while Dee has no interest in producing her own heritage. She is interested only in "things" and possessions, rather in the real people and effort they symbolize. Maggie recognizes she does not need these things to remember the people she loves. She says, "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts" (Walker pg #). This is true, and this is the theme of the entire relationship between the two sisters. Dee cannot remember her ancestors, while Maggie does, and revels in her memories. Walker shows that is true heritage - not just "things" like the butter churn or the quilts. Dee thinks Maggie will not value these relics, but Walker clearly shows it is exactly the opposite. Maggie does appreciate the treasures of the family, while Dee only sees them as something to collect and show off. The quilts are another important symbol in the story, as well. Another critic writes, "While Walker was not the first to write about quilts, she was one of the first to write of the value of the quilt in the Afro-American experience, and she has certainly been one of the most influential writers in rearticulating the value of the quilt" (Whitsitt 443). Thus, she uses the quilts to represent the great rift between the two sisters, and the great rift between militant blacks and the culture they are struggling to represent.

Walker wrote this forceful story in 1973, when there was still a great separation between the rural South and the "new" South. It was a time when blacks were becoming much more involved in their heritage and roots, and were showing their African legacy openly and with pride. Dee has become a billboard for the "enlightened" black who collects trinkets from their heritage like trophies, and hangs them up for all their artsy friends to admire. Dee turns her back on her real heritage, and even changes her name to an African one, turning her back on her family's name and history. She was named after her Aunt Dicie, which… READ MORE

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